Skjöldr ( Old Norse Skjǫldr , Icelandic Skjöldur , sometimes Anglicized as Skjold or Skiold , Latinized as Skioldus ; Old English Scyld , Proto-Germanic *Skelduz ‘shield’) was among the first legendary Danish kings . He is mentioned in the Prose Edda , in Ynglinga saga , in Chronicon Lethrense , in Sven Aggesen 's history, in Arngrímur Jónsson 's Latin abstract of the lost Skjöldunga saga and in Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum . He also appears in the Old English poem Beowulf . The various accounts have little in common.
183-530: Skjǫldr appears in the prologue of Beowulf , where he is referred to as Scyld Scefing , implying he is a descendant or son of a Scef (‘Sheaf’, usually identified with Sceafa ), or, literally, 'of the sheaf'. According to Beowulf he was found in a boat as a child, possibly an orphan , but grew on to become a powerful warrior and king: Scyld the Sheaf-Child from scourging foemen, From raiders a-many their mead-halls wrested. He lives to be feared,
366-477: A slave steals a golden cup from the lair of a dragon at Earnanæs. When the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning everything in sight. Beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but Beowulf tells his men that he will fight the dragon alone and that they should wait on the barrow. Beowulf descends to do battle with the dragon, but finds himself outmatched. His men, upon seeing this and fearing for their lives, retreat into
549-419: A baby in a boat, presumably from across the sea, and to whom Scyld's body is returned in a ship funeral , the vessel sailing by itself. Shippey suggests that J. R. R. Tolkien may have seen in this several elements of his legendarium : a Valar -like group who behave much like gods; a glimmer of his Old Straight Road , the way across the sea to the earthly paradise of Valinor forever closed to mortal Men by
732-554: A catalogue of the names of 180 rulers and tribes from heroic legend, occasionally providing some details of a narrative, such as that of the Scyldings and of Eormanric ( Ermanaric ). Another poem by a fictional scop , Deor , presents itself as the narrative of Deor, who has lost his position at court to the Heorrenda, a famous singer from the legend of Hildr , and contains several other allusions to heroic material, such as to
915-517: A column in the Basel Minster (c. 1185) and on a church facade from the Alsatian abbey of Andlau (c. 1130/40?). This may depict a scene told in one variant in the Þiðreks saga and in another in the epic Virginal in which Dietrich or Hildebrand similarly rescues a man from being swallowed by a dragon. These images may also simply illustrate an allegory of the salvation of the soul from
1098-411: A connection between Beowulf and Virgil near the start of the 20th century, claiming that the very act of writing a secular epic in a Germanic world represents Virgilian influence. Virgil was seen as the pinnacle of Latin literature, and Latin was the dominant literary language of England at the time, therefore making Virgilian influence highly likely. Similarly, in 1971, Alistair Campbell stated that
1281-551: A giant's sword that he found in her lair. Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorised by a dragon , some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon with the help of his thegns or servants, but they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to its lair at Earnanæs , but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf , whose name means "remnant of valour", dares to join him. Beowulf finally slays
1464-623: A group of lays about Sigurd, followed by a group about the destruction of the Burgundians, and close with lays about Svanhildr and Jörmunrekkr (Ermanaric), all loosely connected via short prose passages and through the figures of Sigurd and Gudrun. In the mid-13th century, legendary sagas ( Old Norse : fornaldarsögur ) began to be written in the Old Norse vernacular, some of which derive from Scandinavian and Germanic heroic legends. Those sagas which contain older heroic legend are given
1647-619: A hall was built in the mid-6th century, matching the period described in Beowulf , some centuries before the poem was composed. Three halls, each about 50 metres (160 ft) long, were found during the excavation. The protagonist Beowulf , a hero of the Geats , comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes , whose great hall, Heorot , is plagued by the monster Grendel . Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, then kills Grendel's mother with
1830-683: A more attractive folk tale parallel, according to a 1998 assessment by Andersson. The epic's similarity to the Irish folktale "The Hand and the Child" was noted in 1899 by Albert S. Cook , and others even earlier. In 1914, the Swedish folklorist Carl Wilhelm von Sydow made a strong argument for parallelism with "The Hand and the Child", because the folktale type demonstrated a "monstrous arm" motif that corresponded with Beowulf's wrenching off Grendel's arm. No such correspondence could be perceived in
2013-443: A number of conditions to Hrothgar in case of his death (including the taking in of his kinsmen and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf jumps into the lake and, while harassed by water monsters, gets to the bottom, where he finds a cavern. Grendel's mother pulls him in, and she and Beowulf engage in fierce combat. At first, Grendel's mother prevails, and Hrunting proves incapable of hurting her; she throws Beowulf to
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#17327719794122196-613: A number of details about the hero Siegfried absent in the Nibelungenlied but attested in Old Norse tradition. The ballad the Jüngeres Hildebrandslied (c. 1450) concerns the same material as the early medieval Hildebrandslied . Finally, a number of heroic texts were adopted as carnival plays ( Fastnachtsspiele ), including by the Nuremberg poet Hans Sachs (1494-1564). There is disagreement about
2379-593: A piece of jewelry to be repaired: the figures of the second woman and the man catching birds are unexplained. The top of the Franks Casket also appears to show an archer who is generally identified with Egil , Wayland's brother, and Egil's spouse Ölrún , who appear in the Þiðrekssaga , the Völundarkviða ; they are also usually identified on the Pforzen buckle inscription, from c. 570–600. Some of
2562-511: A powerful impression of historical depth, imitated by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings , a work that embodies many other elements from the poem. The dating of Beowulf has attracted considerable scholarly attention; opinion differs as to whether it was first written in the 8th century, whether it was nearly contemporary with its 11th-century manuscript, and whether a proto-version (possibly
2745-404: A result, the second scribe's script retains more archaic dialectic features, which allow modern scholars to ascribe the poem a cultural context. While both scribes appear to have proofread their work, there are nevertheless many errors. The second scribe was ultimately the more conservative copyist as he did not modify the spelling of the text as he wrote, but copied what he saw in front of him. In
2928-550: A revised reprint in 1950. Klaeber's text was re-presented with new introductory material, notes, and glosses, in a fourth edition in 2008. Another widely used edition is Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie 's, published in 1953 in the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records series. The British Library, meanwhile, took a prominent role in supporting Kevin Kiernan 's Electronic Beowulf ; the first edition appeared in 1999, and
3111-446: A section with 22 reviews of Heaney's translation, some of which compare Heaney's work with Liuzza's. Tolkien's long-awaited prose translation (edited by his son Christopher ) was published in 2014 as Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary . The book includes Tolkien's own retelling of the story of Beowulf in his tale Sellic Spell , but not his incomplete and unpublished verse translation. The Mere Wife , by Maria Dahvana Headley ,
3294-584: A sheaf of corn at his head. Olrik (1910) suggested Peko , a parallel "barley-figure" in Finnish , in turn connected by Fulk (1989) with Eddaic Bergelmir . In the Ynglinga saga and in the now-lost Skjöldunga saga , Odin came from Asia (Scythia) and conquered Northern Europe. He gave Sweden to his son Yngvi and Denmark to his son Skjöldr. Since then the kings of Sweden were called Ynglings and those of Denmark Skjöldungs. In Gesta Danorum , Skioldus
3477-411: A source of information about Scandinavian figures such as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic figures such as Offa , king of the continental Angles. However, the scholar Roy Liuzza argues that the poem is "frustratingly ambivalent", neither myth nor folktale, but is set "against a complex background of legendary history ... on a roughly recognizable map of Scandinavia", and comments that
3660-402: A version of the " Bear's Son Tale ") was orally transmitted before being transcribed in its present form. Albert Lord felt strongly that the manuscript represents the transcription of a performance, though likely taken at more than one sitting. J. R. R. Tolkien believed that the poem retains too genuine a memory of Anglo-Saxon paganism to have been composed more than a few generations after
3843-453: Is " British Library , Cotton Vitellius A.XV" because it was one of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton 's holdings in the Cotton library in the middle of the 17th century. Many private antiquarians and book collectors, such as Sir Robert Cotton, used their own library classification systems. "Cotton Vitellius A.XV" translates as: the 15th book from the left on shelf A (the top shelf) of the bookcase with
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#17327719794124026-535: Is a genre of Germanic folklore . Heroic legends are attested in Anglo-Saxon England , medieval Scandinavia , and medieval Germany. Many take the form of Germanic heroic poetry ( German : germanische Heldendichtung ): shorter pieces are known as heroic lays , whereas longer pieces are called Germanic heroic epic ( germanische Heldenepik ). The early Middle Ages preserves only a small number of legends in writing, mostly from England, including
4209-405: Is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025 AD. Scholars call the anonymous author the " Beowulf poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 5th and 6th centuries. Beowulf , a hero of the Geats , comes to the aid of Hrothgar , the king of the Danes , whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by
4392-558: Is also found in England as well. The use of the term "Germanic" is disputed in current scholarship, due to its implication of a shared cultural identity for which little evidence exists. Shami Ghosh remarks that Germanic heroic legend is unique in that it is not preserved among the peoples who originated it (mainly Burgundians and Goths ) but among other peoples; he cautions that we cannot assume that it functioned to create any sort of "Germanic" identity among its audience, and notes that
4575-559: Is also possible that it was royal praise poetry of the type preserved in the Old High German Ludwigslied . In any case, none of the purported collection has survived, unless it included the earliest extant vernacular heroic text, the Hildebrandslied . The poem tells of the battle of the hero Hildebrand with his own son Hadubrand and alludes to many of the traditions that will later surround Theodoric
4758-615: Is always a warrior, concerned with reputation and fame, as well as his political responsibilities. Heroes belonged to an aristocratic class, and legends about them provided an opportunity for the aristocratic public of the legends to reflect on their own behavior and values. In the High Middle Ages, this means that heroes often also portray the elements of chivalry and courtly behavior expected of their time period. The Roman historian Tacitus (c. 56-120) makes two comments that have been taken as attesting early heroic poetry among
4941-494: Is arriving on a ship, and seems to seek to mediate between the two sides. This corresponds to a version of the legend known from 12th-century Germany, in which Hildr ( Middle High German : Hilde ) seeks - ultimately unsuccessfully - to mediate between her father, Hagene, and the man who seized her for marriage, Hetel. The later Norse versions, in which the battle is called the Hjaðningavíg , instead portray Hildr as egging on
5124-442: Is by its nature invisible to history as evidence is in writing. Comparison with other bodies of verse such as Homer's, coupled with ethnographic observation of early 20th century performers, has provided a vision of how an Anglo-Saxon singer-poet or scop may have practised. The resulting model is that performance was based on traditional stories and a repertoire of word formulae that fitted the traditional metre. The scop moved through
5307-508: Is central. Peter Fisher, expressly distinguishes between the "Germanic hero" and the tragic hero . The death of the former is heroic rather than tragic; it usually brings destruction, not restoration, as in classical tragedy; and the hero's goal is frequently revenge, which would be hamartia (a flaw) in a tragic hero. In the Germanic sphere, the hero is usually defined by an amazing deed or deeds that show his heroic qualities. The hero
5490-611: Is common. A number of the runic inscriptions display the deeds accomplished by the young Sigurd , namely his killing of the dragon Fafnir and acquisition of the hoard of the Nibelungs . The Ramsund carving was probably illustrated with the Sigurd saga due to being carved in memory of a man named Sigfried ( Sigrøðr , from * Sigi-freðuz ). In the carving, Odin , Hœnir and Loki have killed Ótr (6), and paid his wergild . Ótr's brother Fafnir has murdered his own father to have
5673-598: Is described as the first man to rule the Danes. He was known by that name because of the shielding power of his kingship. Kings of the Danes are in bold. The source used for the genealogical information and name spellings is the English translation by Eric Christiansen . The passage at the start of the Old English poem Beowulf about Scyld Scefing contains a cryptic mention of þā ("those") who have sent Scyld as
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5856-699: Is known only from a single manuscript, estimated to date from around 975–1025, in which it appears with other works. The manuscript therefore dates either to the reign of Æthelred the Unready , characterised by strife with the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard , or to the beginning of the reign of Sweyn's son Cnut the Great from 1016. The Beowulf manuscript is known as the Nowell Codex, gaining its name from 16th-century scholar Laurence Nowell . The official designation
6039-414: Is not a purely legendary saga, but also contains material about King Arthur and Apollonius of Tyre . It is probably part of the tradition of chivalric sagas - translations of courtly material - initiated by king Haakon IV of Norway . The core of the saga is the biography of the hero Dietrich von Bern ( Þiðrekr af Bern ). The saga appears to assemble all of the heroic material from the continent and
6222-530: Is pained by the sounds of joy. Grendel attacks the hall and devours many of Hrothgar's warriors while they sleep. Hrothgar and his people, helpless against Grendel, abandon Heorot. Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and with his king's permission leaves his homeland to assist Hrothgar. Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Beowulf refuses to use any weapon because he holds himself to be Grendel's equal. When Grendel enters
6405-576: Is set in the Migration Period (4th-6th centuries AD). Stories from this time period, to which others were added later, were transmitted orally , traveled widely among the Germanic speaking peoples, and were known in many variants. These legends typically reworked historical events or personages in the manner of oral poetry, forming a heroic age . Heroes in these legends often display a heroic ethos emphasizing honor, glory, and loyalty above other concerns. Like Germanic mythology , heroic legend
6588-459: Is shown by the fact that the Germanic speakers in Frankia who adopted a Romance language do not preserve Germanic legends, but rather developed their own heroic legends around figures such as William of Gellone , Roland , and Charlemagne . Of central importance to heroic legend is the figure of the hero , about whom conflicting definitions exist. According to Edward Haymes and Susan Samples,
6771-525: Is the son of Lotherus , a wicked king who met his end in an insurrection. Kings of the Danes are in bold and marked with an asterisk (*). Kings of the Swedes are marked with a dagger (†). Name spellings are derived from Oliver Elton 's 1905 translation, The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus , via Wikisource . In Sven Aggesen 's Brevis historia regum Dacie , Skiold
6954-404: Is thus a valuable attestations of which heroic legends were being told on the continent in the 13th century, including several that are otherwise lost. From the 11th to the 12th centuries, heroic legend on the continent is mentioned only in brief allusions. This includes a tradition of criticizing the legendary life of Dietrich von Bern as not according with the life of the historical Theodoric
7137-618: The Angelcynn , in which Scyldic descent was attributed to the West-Saxon royal pedigree. This date of composition largely agrees with Lapidge's positing of a West-Saxon exemplar c. 900 . The location of the poem's composition is intensely disputed. In 1914, F.W. Moorman , the first professor of English Language at University of Leeds , claimed that Beowulf was composed in Yorkshire, but E. Talbot Donaldson claims that it
7320-684: The Heimskringla , a history of the Norwegian kings, having previously spent two years in Norway and Sweden (1218–20). In the saga, Snorri fleshes out the skaldic poem Ynglingatal with Scandinavian heroic legends relating to the Norse kings, such as the 6th c. Swedish king Aðils , about whom it includes native legends related to some of those found in Beowulf . Snorri is also the author of
7503-640: The Nibelungenlied , which was probably written through the patronage of bishop Wolfger von Erla of Passau . One of the earliest attestations of the heroic tradition is on the Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket (c. 700), which depicts a scene from the legend of Wayland the smith : Wayland is portrayed after having been crippled by king Niðhad . He stands over a headless figure representing Niðhad's children whom he has killed in revenge. The first woman represents Niðhad's daughter bringing
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7686-525: The Prose Edda (c. 1220–1241). It contains a part called Skáldskaparmál that has a list of kennings and heitis for young poets, and he provided it with narratives to provide background for them. The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse mythological and heroic poems that was probably first compiled in the mid-13th century in Iceland and is known from two major manuscripts today, of which
7869-565: The Völsunga saga than in the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda . The exact relationship between myth and legend is unclear, and it is also possible for mythological beings to be euhemerized as heroes. Thus some scholars argue that the immense strength Brunhild displays in the Nibelungenlied may indicate that she was originally a mythical being. The historical origins of the figure of Sigurd/Siegfried are uncertain, and his slaying of
8052-646: The Bear's Son Tale ( Bärensohnmärchen ) type, which has surviving examples all over the world. This tale type was later catalogued as international folktale type 301 in the ATU Index , now formally entitled "The Three Stolen Princesses" type in Hans Uther's catalogue, although the "Bear's Son" is still used in Beowulf criticism, if not so much in folkloristic circles. However, although this folkloristic approach
8235-414: The Beowulf manuscript, as possible source-texts or influences would suggest time-frames of composition, geographic boundaries within which it could be composed, or range (both spatial and temporal) of influence (i.e. when it was "popular" and where its "popularity" took it). The poem has been related to Scandinavian, Celtic, and international folkloric sources. 19th-century studies proposed that Beowulf
8418-447: The Beowulf metre; B.R. Hutcheson, for instance, does not believe Kaluza's law can be used to date the poem, while claiming that "the weight of all the evidence Fulk presents in his book tells strongly in favour of an eighth-century date." From an analysis of creative genealogy and ethnicity, Craig R. Davis suggests a composition date in the AD 890s, when King Alfred of England had secured
8601-503: The Beowulf text is too varied to be completely constructed from set formulae and themes. John Miles Foley wrote that comparative work must observe the particularities of a given tradition; in his view, there was a fluid continuum from traditionality to textuality. Many editions of the Old English text of Beowulf have been published; this section lists the most influential. The Icelandic scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin made
8784-718: The Book of Genesis , the Book of Exodus , and the Book of Daniel in its inclusion of references to the Genesis creation narrative , the story of Cain and Abel , Noah and the flood , the Devil , Hell , and the Last Judgment . Germanic heroic legend Germanic heroic legend ( German : germanische Heldensage ) is the heroic literary tradition of the Germanic-speaking peoples , most of which originates or
8967-710: The Cheruscian leader Arminius was celebrated in song after his death. This older poetry has not survived, probably because it was heavily connected to Germanic paganism . Most of the extant heroic legends have their origins in the Migration Period (4th-6th centuries AD); some may have earlier origins, such as the legends of Sigurd and Hildr , while others are likely later, such as the legend of Walter of Aquitaine . Some early Gothic heroic legends are already found in Jordanes ' Getica (c. 551). The most important figures around whom heroic legends were composed from
9150-527: The Codex Regius (c. 1270) is the most important. The Codex Regius groups mythological poems into a first section and a series of 19 heroic poems into a second; scholars believe that the two sections of poems likely come from two originally separate written collections. Although the legends in Poetic Edda are very old, the poems themselves come from different times, and some may have been written in
9333-555: The High and Late Middle Ages , heroic texts are written in great numbers in Scandinavia, particularly Iceland, and in southern Germany and Austria. Scandinavian legends are preserved both in the form of Eddic poetry and in prose sagas , particularly in the legendary sagas such as the Völsunga saga . German sources are made up of numerous heroic epics, of which the most famous is the Nibelungenlied (c. 1200). The majority of
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#17327719794129516-720: The Kudrun (1230?), in which material also found in Old English and Old Norse about the heroine Hildr serves as the prologue to the - likely invented - story of her daughter, Kudrun. From 1230 onward, several heroic epics, of which 14 are known to us, were written concerning the hero Dietrich von Bern, forming a literary cycle comparable to that around King Arthur (the Matter of Britain ) or Charlemagne (the Matter of France ). These texts are typically divided into "historical" and "fantastical" epics, depending on whether they concern Dietrich's battles with Ermenrich (Ermanaric) and exile at
9699-564: The Lombards about their king Alboin . The Frankish Emperor Charlemagne (748-814) may have collected heroic poetry. His biographer Einhard wrote that: He also wrote out the barbarous and ancient songs, in which the acts of the kings and their wars were sung, and committed them to memory. ( Vita Karoli Magni , chap. 29) It has traditionally been supposed that this represented a written collection of heroic poetry, and interest in heroic poetry at Charlemagne's court seems likely. However it
9882-473: The Migration Period or it is (vaguely) set in the Migration Period, which plays the role of a " heroic age ;" 2) the legends mythologize the heroic age, so that it no longer is concretely fixed in history, allowing persons who in reality never met to interact; 3) the characters of Germanic legend do not or seldom interact with characters from other legendary cycles, such as the Matter of Britain or
10065-524: The Scyldings , appears as "Hrothulf" in Beowulf . New Scandinavian analogues to Beowulf continue to be proposed regularly, with Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar being the most recently adduced text. Friedrich Panzer [ de ] (1910) wrote a thesis that the first part of Beowulf (the Grendel Story) incorporated preexisting folktale material, and that the folktale in question was of
10248-510: The Völsunga saga , was probably written in Norway and shows knowledge of the Þiðreks saga (see below): it narrates the story of Sigurd and his ancestors, the destruction of the Burgundians, and the death of Jörmunrekr (Ermanaric), moving their location to Scandinavia and including many mythological elements. The Hrólfs saga kraka may be the second best-known legendary saga. It was popular in
10431-557: The apologue technique used in Beowulf is so rare in epic poetry aside from Virgil that the poet who composed Beowulf could not have written the poem in such a manner without first coming across Virgil 's writings. It cannot be denied that Biblical parallels occur in the text, whether seen as a pagan work with "Christian colouring" added by scribes or as a "Christian historical novel, with selected bits of paganism deliberately laid on as 'local colour'", as Margaret E. Goldsmith did in "The Christian Theme of Beowulf ". Beowulf channels
10614-574: The battle between Eadgils and Onela ). The raid by King Hygelac into Frisia is mentioned by Gregory of Tours in his History of the Franks and can be dated to around 521. The majority view appears to be that figures such as King Hrothgar and the Scyldings in Beowulf are based on historical people from 6th-century Scandinavia. Like the Finnesburg Fragment and several shorter surviving poems, Beowulf has consequently been used as
10797-475: The language of the birds (2), who told him that Regin had no intention of sharing the treasure with him, but instead planned to kill him. They advised Sigurd to kill Regin who lies beheaded among his smithy tools (3). Sigurd then loaded his horse with the treasure (4). This inscription and others show that the story was known in early 11th c. Sweden and they match details found in the Eddic poems and later sources on
10980-506: The oral forumulaic theory of oral poetry, According to Edward Haymes, common Germanic heroic poetry appears to have been "oral epic poetry", which made heavy use of repetitions and formula within the metrical scheme of alliterative verse . Some signs of oral epic style in Beowulf are inconsistencies from scene to scene, as details, such the presence of objects or individuals, are mentioned or omitted from performance to performance. Nevertheless, no "oral" heroic poetry has survived, as all
11163-536: The 13th century: normally the poems Völundarkviða and Atlakviða are believed to be from the Viking Age , while the three lays concerning Gudrun , the Atlamál , and Helreið Brynhildar are thought to be very recent. Some poems, such as Hamðismál , are judged to be old by some scholars and recent by others. The heroic poems open with 3 concerning Sigurd's half brother Helgi Hundingsbane , continue with
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#173277197941211346-520: The 13th to 16th centuries, many heroic traditions enter writing in Germany and enjoy great popularity. Werner Hoffmann defined five subjects of heroic epics in medieval Germany: the Nibelungen ( Burgundians and Siegfried), the lovers Walther and Hildegund , the maiden Kudrun , kings Ortnit and Wolfdietrich , and Dietrich von Bern. He found the heroic epics to be closely related to another genre,
11529-521: The 15th century, when a small number of illuminated manuscripts begin to appear. The manuscripts all vary widely in their iconography, showing that there was no tradition of depicting heroic events. The first illuminated manuscript of the Nibelungenlied is manuscript b , also known as the Hundeshagenscher codex (c. 1436–1442, in Augsburg ), which contains a cycle of 14 illuminations on
11712-510: The 20th century. In 2000 (2nd edition 2013), Liuzza published his own version of Beowulf in a parallel text with the Old English, with his analysis of the poem's historical, oral, religious and linguistic contexts. R. D. Fulk, of Indiana University , published a facing-page edition and translation of the entire Nowell Codex manuscript in 2010. Hugh Magennis 's 2011 Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse discusses
11895-725: The 5th and 6th centuries, and feature predominantly non-English characters. Some suggest that Beowulf was first composed in the 7th century at Rendlesham in East Anglia , as the Sutton Hoo ship-burial shows close connections with Scandinavia, and the East Anglian royal dynasty, the Wuffingas , may have been descendants of the Geatish Wulfings . Others have associated this poem with the court of King Alfred
12078-421: The 8th century; in particular, the poem's apparent observation of etymological vowel-length distinctions in unstressed syllables (described by Kaluza's law ) has been thought to demonstrate a date of composition prior to the earlier ninth century. However, scholars disagree about whether the metrical phenomena described by Kaluza's law prove an early date of composition or are evidence of a longer prehistory of
12261-411: The 9th century Carolingian Empire , Anglo-Saxon England in the 8th and 9th centuries, Scandinavia in the 13th century, and what is now Germany from the 12th to the 16th centuries. Heiko Uecker comments that the preserved attestations should not be considered "Germanic," but rather Old English , Old Norse , or Middle High German . The Early Middle Ages produced only a few written heroic texts, as
12444-441: The Bear's Son Tale or in the Grettis saga . James Carney and Martin Puhvel agree with this "Hand and the Child" contextualisation. Puhvel supported the "Hand and the Child" theory through such motifs as (in Andersson's words) "the more powerful giant mother, the mysterious light in the cave, the melting of the sword in blood, the phenomenon of battle rage, swimming prowess, combat with water monsters, underwater adventures, and
12627-469: The Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database listed some 688 translations and other versions of the poem. Beowulf has been translated into at least 38 other languages. In 1805, the historian Sharon Turner translated selected verses into modern English . This was followed in 1814 by John Josias Conybeare who published an edition "in English paraphrase and Latin verse translation." N. F. S. Grundtvig reviewed Thorkelin's edition in 1815 and created
12810-401: The Burgundians, for instance, became fairly romanized at an early date. Millet likewise remarks that defining these heroic legends as "Germanic" does not postulate a common Germanic legendary inheritance, but rather that the legends were easily transmitted between peoples speaking related languages. The close link between Germanic heroic legend and Germanic language and possibly poetic devices
12993-558: The Carolingian period who read about events in the migration period. This position is, however, "contrary to almost all literary scholarship". Heroic legends can also take on mythical elements, and these are common in Germanic heroic legend. Joseph C. Harris writes that "mythic motifs" or "folklore-related motifs" can become attached to the historical core of heroic legend. The liberation of society from monsters and otherworldly beings forms an important part of extant heroic legend. Examples of heroes taking on mythical qualities include
13176-484: The Danish king Hnæf. It is not clear if Finnesburg Fragment is an old poem or a recent composition, nor how long it originally was. A number of brief mentions in Latin ecclesiastical texts indicate the popularity of heroic traditions among the early medieval clergy while simultaneously condemning it as a distraction from salvation. This popularity led to the writing of the Latin epic Waltharius (9th or 10th century) in
13359-560: The Geats are defenceless against attacks from surrounding tribes. Afterwards, a barrow, visible from the sea, is built in his memory. The poem contains many apparent digressions from the main story. These were found troublesome by early Beowulf scholars such as Frederick Klaeber , who wrote that they "interrupt the story", W. W. Lawrence , who stated that they "clog the action and distract attention from it", and W. P. Ker who found some "irrelevant ... possibly ... interpolations". More recent scholars from Adrien Bonjour onwards note that
13542-452: The Geats of the poem may correspond with the Gautar (of modern Götaland ); or perhaps the legendary Getae. Nineteenth-century archaeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story. Eadgils was buried at Uppsala ( Gamla Uppsala , Sweden) according to Snorri Sturluson . When the western mound (to the left in the photo) was excavated in 1874, the finds showed that a powerful man
13725-542: The German name Heldensagas ("heroic sagas") in modern scholarly usage. Much of the content of these sagas is derived from Eddic poems, and other elements likely derive from then current oral tradition. Some may be additions of the saga authors. Traditionally, six sagas are counted as Heldensagas : Völsunga saga , Norna-Gests þáttr , Hervarar saga , Hrólfs saga kraka , Sǫgubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum , and Ásmundar saga kappabana . The best-known today,
13908-568: The Germanic peoples. The first is a remark in Germania : In the traditional songs which form their only record of the past the Germans celebrate an earth-born god called Tuisto. His son Mannus is supposed to be the fountain-head of their race and himself to have begotten three sons who gave their names to three groups of tribes. ( Germania , chapter 2) The other is a remark in the Annals that
14091-579: The Germanic-speaking peoples shared a metrical and poetic form, alliterative verse , which is attested in very similar forms in Old Saxon , Old High German and Old English , and in a modified form in Old Norse . The common form consists of lines of four stressed beats, with a caesura dividing the line in half. At least two beats must alliterate across the caesura, forming what in German
14274-728: The Goths and Huns , and poetry such as the Waking of Angantýr , the Riddles of Gestumblindi and the Samsey poetry . Another important source for heroic legend was the Þiðreks saga , a compilation of heroic material mostly from northern Germany, composed in Bergen , Norway in the mid 13th century. By its own account, it was composed from oral German sources, although it is possible that some written materials were used as well. The Þiðreks saga
14457-548: The Great or with the court of King Cnut the Great . The poem blends fictional, legendary, mythic and historical elements. Although Beowulf himself is not mentioned in any other Old English manuscript, many of the other figures named in Beowulf appear in Scandinavian sources . This concerns not only individuals (e.g., Healfdene , Hroðgar , Halga , Hroðulf , Eadgils and Ohthere ), but also clans (e.g., Scyldings , Scylfings and Wulfings) and certain events (e.g.,
14640-524: The Great , found in works such as the Historia mundi of Frutolf of Michelsberg (c. 1100), the Historia de duabus civitatibus (1134-1136) of Otto von Freising , and the vernacular Kaiserchronik (after 1146). Allusions to heroic legends are also found in a number of vernacular literary works of courtly romance and poetry from the 12th century, including by Walther von der Vogelweide , Heinrich von Veldeke , and Wolfram von Eschenbach . From
14823-528: The Great/ Dietrich von Bern . Some potential references to written heroic poems are found in 9th-century monastic library catalogues, and the chronicler Flodoard of Reims (c.893–966) mentions a written narrative about Ermanaric . Viking Age Scandinavia is traditionally believed to have produced a number of poems on heroic subjects in this period, but they were not written down until the 13th century. Although more recent scholarship has challenged
15006-491: The Isle of Man probably contains the only image of the hero Gunnarr from outside Scandinavia: the hero is shown dying in a snake pit while playing a harp. He is also found on the picture stone Södermanland 40 , from Västerljung , Sweden . The scene of Gunnarr in the snake pit is also found on several church portals and baptismal fonts from Norway or areas formerly under Norwegian control, mostly from after 1200. Elements of
15189-726: The Kings of Denmark (c. 1188), and the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200). At this time in Iceland , the now lost Skjöldunga saga was written, c. 1200, and like parts of Gesta Danorum and Beowulf it dealt with the legendary Danish Scylding (Skjöldung) dynasty, and it would be the main source for future sagas on the Danish Scylding dynasty's relations with its Swedish Scylfing (Yngling) counterpart. Sometime c. 1220–1230, Snorri Sturluson finished writing
15372-506: The Last Survivor" in the style of another Old English poem, " The Wanderer ", and Beowulf's dealings with the Geats such as his verbal contest with Unferth and his swimming duel with Breca, and the tale of Sigemund and the dragon; history and legend, including the fight at Finnsburg and the tale of Freawaru and Ingeld; and biblical tales such as the creation myth and Cain as ancestor of all monsters. The digressions provide
15555-515: The Middle Ages, and it still is, but its modern popularity among scholars is due to it being a Beowulf analogue, with which it shares at least eight legendary characters. The Hervarar saga combines several different stories that are united by the handing down of the cursed sword Tyrfing through generations. It preserves what is considered to be one of the oldest heroic lays, the Battle of
15738-595: The Migration Period and may be inventions of the thirteenth century, although Merovingian origins are also suggested for Wolfdietrich . Almost all of the texts originate in the Bavarian -speaking areas of Bavaria and Austria, with several texts about Dietrich von Bern having origins in Tirol ; a few others seem to have originated in the Alemannic dialect area in modern south-west Germany and Switzerland. Evidence for
15921-724: The Migration Period are the Gothic king Ermanaric , the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great (later known as Dietrich von Bern ), the Hunnic king Attila , and the Burgundian king Gundahar . Numerous other sources throughout the Early Middle Ages make brief references to figures known in later heroic legends, as well as to other figures about whom legends have likely been lost. The original historical material at
16104-414: The Old Norse hero Starkaðr , who may be portrayed with multiple arms, while Dietrich von Bern is able to breathe fire. The heroine Hildr appears to have become a valkyrie in the Norse tradition, and the same thing may have happened to the heroine Brunhild . Generally, mythical elements are more common in later rather than earlier Norse material: for instance, appearances of Odin are more common in
16287-403: The Old Norse material about Sigurd originates on the continent and the Old English poem Beowulf portrays a legend that originates in Scandinavia. Material of originally East Germanic Gothic and Burgundian origin is found throughout the entire Germanic-speaking world, making up the majority of the material found in Germany and much of that from England, while originally Scandinavian material
16470-768: The Sigurd legend. Parts of the legend of Sigurd are also depicted on several 10th-century stone crosses from the British Isles, including several on the Isle of Man , as well as several from England dating to the time of the Danelaw (1016-1042). Several Norwegian stave churches built around 1200 contain carved depictions of the Sigurd legend, including the Hylestad Stave Church and the Vegusdal Stave Church . The Kirk Andreas cross on
16653-463: The University of Minnesota, published his edition of the poem, Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg ; it became the "central source used by graduate students for the study of the poem and by scholars and teachers as the basis of their translations." The edition included an extensive glossary of Old English terms. His third edition was published in 1936, with the last version in his lifetime being
16836-453: The adventure of Beowulf, adeptly tell a tall tale, and ( wordum wrixlan ) weave his words." The poem further mentions (lines 1065–1068) that "the harp was touched, tales often told, when Hrothgar's scop was set to recite among the mead tables his hall-entertainment". The question of whether Beowulf was passed down through oral tradition prior to its present manuscript form has been the subject of much debate, and involves more than simply
17019-472: The age of most of the surviving written poems, it remains likely that precursors to extant poems existed in the Viking Age. A single stanza on the 9th-century Rök runestone from Östergötland , Sweden, also mentions Dietrich/Theodoric. Anglo-Saxon England, which had a larger written culture than the continent, also produced several texts on heroic subjects, including the only vernacular heroic epic of
17202-511: The area around Lake Constance , which reworked the legend of Walter of Aquitaine. A number of early medieval Latin chronicles also contain material from the heroic tradition. Widukind of Corvey 's The Deeds of the Saxons contains what is commonly taken to be a lost legend about the last independent king of the Thuringians , Hermanafrid , and his death at the hands of his vassal Iring at
17385-669: The basis of earlier motifs in the 13th century, although Dietrich's battles with giants are already mentioned in the Old English Waldere fragment. The earliest attested of the "fantastical" epics is the Eckenlied , of which a single stanza is contained in the Codex Buranus (c. 1230). Closely connected to the Dietrich epics, the combined epics Ortnit and Wolfdietrich (both c. 1230) have unclear connections to
17568-462: The bear-hug style of wrestling." In the Mabinogion , Teyrnon discovers the otherworldly boy child Pryderi , the principal character of the cycle, after cutting off the arm of a monstrous beast which is stealing foals from his stables. The medievalist R. Mark Scowcroft notes that the tearing off of the monster's arm without a weapon is found only in Beowulf and fifteen of the Irish variants of
17751-539: The books of Genesis , Exodus , and Daniel . The poem survives in a single copy in the manuscript known as the Nowell Codex . It has no title in the original manuscript, but has become known by the name of the story's protagonist. In 1731, the manuscript was damaged by a fire that swept through Ashburnham House in London, which was housing Sir Robert Cotton 's collection of medieval manuscripts. It survived, but
17934-524: The bust of Roman Emperor Vitellius standing on top of it, in Cotton's collection. Kevin Kiernan argues that Nowell most likely acquired it through William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , in 1563, when Nowell entered Cecil's household as a tutor to his ward, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford . The earliest extant reference to the first foliation of the Nowell Codex was made sometime between 1628 and 1650 by Franciscus Junius (the younger) . The ownership of
18117-481: The challenges and history of translating the poem, as well as the question of how to approach its poetry, and discusses several post-1950 verse translations, paying special attention to those of Edwin Morgan , Burton Raffel , Michael J. Alexander , and Seamus Heaney. Translating Beowulf is one of the subjects of the 2012 publication Beowulf at Kalamazoo , containing a section with 10 essays on translation, and
18300-415: The codex before Nowell remains a mystery. The Reverend Thomas Smith (1638–1710) and Humfrey Wanley (1672–1726) both catalogued the Cotton library (in which the Nowell Codex was held). Smith's catalogue appeared in 1696, and Wanley's in 1705. The Beowulf manuscript itself is identified by name for the first time in an exchange of letters in 1700 between George Hickes, Wanley's assistant, and Wanley. In
18483-758: The combatants, Hǫgni and Heðinn. The Gotland Image stone Ardre VIII , which has been dated to the 8th c., shows two decapitated bodies, a smithy, a woman, and a winged creature which is interpreted as Wayland flying away from his captivity. Another one, Stora Hammars III , shows a man transformed into a bird who meets a woman, but this one may instead refer to Odin stealing the mead of poetry , in Skáldskaparmál . Several small objects of winged people have also been found, but gods, and some giants, are known to be able to transform into birds in Norse mythology , and Viking Age artwork with human-animal transformations
18666-536: The common Germanic form was short, as found in the Scandinavian examples. Hermann Reichert argues that only the Hildebrandslied is a genuine example of an early heroic lay, discounting the age of Norse examples that are generally dated early, such as Atlakviða . Other scholarship has instead argued that the poems could be of variable length and were improvised with each performance, according to
18849-571: The completion of the Christianisation of England around AD 700, and Tolkien's conviction that the poem dates to the 8th century has been defended by scholars including Tom Shippey , Leonard Neidorf , Rafael J. Pascual, and Robert D. Fulk . An analysis of several Old English poems by a team including Neidorf suggests that Beowulf is the work of a single author, though other scholars disagree. The claim to an early 11th-century date depends in part on scholars who argue that, rather than
19032-592: The continued existence of heroic legends in what is now Northern Germany and the Low Countries is provided by the Þiðreks saga on the one hand, and the early modern ballad Ermenrichs Tod (printed 1560 in Lübeck ) on the other. The latter tells a garbled version of the killing of Ermenrich (Ermanaric) also found in early medieval Latin sources and the Eddic poem Hamðismál . Very few new heroic poems, and no new heroic epics, were written after 1300, although
19215-515: The court of Etzel (Attila) or his battles with mostly supernatural opponents such as dwarfs , dragons , and giants . The "historical" Dietrich epic Rabenschlacht (c. 1280) narrates the death of the sons of Etzel (Attila) and of Dietrich's brother Diether at the hands of his traitorous vassal, Witege and may have origins in the Battle of Nedao (454). The "fantastical" Dietrich epics are typically thought to be later material, possibly invented on
19398-516: The digressions can all be explained as introductions or comparisons with elements of the main story; for instance, Beowulf's swimming home across the sea from Frisia carrying thirty sets of armour emphasises his heroic strength. The digressions can be divided into four groups, namely the Scyld narrative at the start; many descriptions of the Geats, including the Swedish–Geatish wars , the "Lay of
19581-424: The dragon represents a victory over chaos and destruction and results in the hero taking on semi-divine abilities. Germanic heroic legend contains fewer mythological elements than that of many other cultures, for instance, the heroic legend of Ancient Greece . Older scholarship was of the opinion that heroic poetry was "entirely heathen", however more recent scholarship has abandoned this position. A great many of
19764-400: The dragon, but is mortally wounded in the struggle. He is cremated and a burial mound by the sea is erected in his honour. Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts. The poem begins in medias res or simply, "in the middle of things", a characteristic of
19947-491: The earlier attestations, were created by and for an audience that already knew the heroic tradition rather than one who was being informed about its contents; they are thus often difficult for modern readers to understand, often contradictory with other attestations, and rarely tell an entire story. No surviving text of Germanic legend appears to have been "oral," but rather all appear to have been conceived as written texts. The oral tradition also continued outside and alongside of
20130-433: The earliest evidence for Germanic Heroic legends comes in pictorial form on runestones and picture stones. In Sweden, there are nine runic inscriptions , and several image stones from the Viking Age that illustrate scenes from Germanic Heroic legends. The picture stone Smiss I from Gotland, dated around 700, appears to depict a version of the legend of Hildr : a woman stands between two groups of warriors, one of which
20313-505: The encounter between Beowulf and Unferth was parallel to the encounter between Odysseus and Euryalus in Books 7–8 of the Odyssey, even to the point of both characters giving the hero the same gift of a sword upon being proven wrong in their initial assessment of the hero's prowess. This theory of Homer's influence on Beowulf remained very prevalent in the 1920s, but started to die out in
20496-419: The end for Beowulf. The poem is tightly structured. E. Carrigan shows the symmetry of its design in a model of its major components, with for instance the account of the killing of Grendel matching that of the killing of the dragon, the glory of the Danes matching the accounts of the Danish and Geatish courts. Other analyses are possible as well; Gale Owen-Crocker , for instance, sees the poem as structured by
20679-430: The epics of antiquity. Although the poem begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been ongoing. An elaborate history of characters and their lineages is spoken of, as well as their interactions with each other, debts owed and repaid, and deeds of valour. The warriors form a brotherhood linked by loyalty to their lord. The poem begins and ends with funerals: at the beginning of the poem for Scyld Scefing and at
20862-465: The events of the poem. A number of manuscripts include an illumination at the beginning of each epic, usually illustrating an important event from the poem such as Siegfried's murder or Ortnit 's fight with a dragon. Other manuscripts include cycles of illustrations, such as one of the Rosengarten zu Worms and another of Virginal . Notable is a manuscript of the Dietrich epic Sigenot which
21045-602: The existing ones remained popular. Beginning in the 14th century, heroic poems come to be collected together in so-called Heldenbücher ("books of heroes"); the Heldenbuch of Diebolt von Hanau (after 1475) contains a text known as the Heldenbuch-Prosa which provides a brief history of the entire heroic world. Possibly originating in the 14th century but only attested in 1530, the Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid recorded
21228-494: The first complete verse translation in Danish in 1820. In 1837, John Mitchell Kemble created an important literal translation in English. In 1895, William Morris and A. J. Wyatt published the ninth English translation. In 1909, Francis Barton Gummere 's full translation in "English imitative metre" was published, and was used as the text of Gareth Hinds's 2007 graphic novel based on Beowulf . In 1975, John Porter published
21411-556: The first complete verse translation of the poem entirely accompanied by facing-page Old English. Seamus Heaney 's 1999 translation of the poem ( Beowulf: A New Verse Translation , called "Heaneywulf" by the Beowulf translator Howell Chickering and many others ) was both praised and criticised. The US publication was commissioned by W. W. Norton & Company , and was included in the Norton Anthology of English Literature . Many retellings of Beowulf for children appeared in
21594-513: The first has a waif, Puny and frail he was found on the shore. He grew to be great, and was girt with power Till the border-tribes all obeyed his rule, And sea-folk hardy that sit by the whale-path Gave him tribute, a good king was he. After relating in general terms the glories of Scyld's reign, the poet describes Scyld's funeral, his body was laid in a ship surrounded by treasures: They decked his body no less bountifully with offerings than those first ones did who cast him away when he
21777-464: The first transcriptions of the Beowulf -manuscript in 1786, working as part of a Danish government historical research commission. He had a copy made by a professional copyist who knew no Old English (and was therefore in some ways more likely to make transcription errors, but in other ways more likely to copy exactly what he saw), and then made a copy himself. Since that time, the manuscript has crumbled further, making these transcripts prized witnesses to
21960-543: The following decade when a handful of critics stated that the two works were merely "comparative literature", although Greek was known in late 7th century England: Bede states that Theodore of Tarsus , a Greek, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 668, and he taught Greek. Several English scholars and churchmen are described by Bede as being fluent in Greek due to being taught by him; Bede claims to be fluent in Greek himself. Frederick Klaeber , among others, argued for
22143-416: The four funerals it describes. For J. R. R. Tolkien , the primary division in the poem was between young and old Beowulf. Beowulf begins with the story of Hrothgar , who constructed the great hall, Heorot, for himself and his warriors. In it, he, his wife Wealhtheow , and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating. Grendel, a troll -like monster said to be descended from the biblical Cain ,
22326-678: The fourth in 2014. The tightly interwoven structure of Old English poetry makes translating Beowulf a severe technical challenge. Despite this, a great number of translations and adaptations are available, in poetry and prose. Andy Orchard, in A Critical Companion to Beowulf , lists 33 "representative" translations in his bibliography, while the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies published Marijane Osborn 's annotated list of over 300 translations and adaptations in 2003. Beowulf has been translated many times in verse and in prose, and adapted for stage and screen. By 2020,
22509-429: The gold for himself, but when the third brother Regin wanted his share, Fafnir turned into a dragon to protect the hoard. Regin was a skilled smith who crafted the sword Gram and asked his foster-son Sigurd to kill Fafnir (5). Regin then asked Sigurd to cook the dragon's heart for him. Sigurd touched the heart to see if it was done but burnt his finger on it, and put it in his mouth (1). He tasted dragon blood and learnt
22692-409: The ground and, sitting astride him, tries to kill him with a short sword, but Beowulf is saved by his armour. Beowulf spots another sword, hanging on the wall and apparently made for giants, and cuts her head off with it. Travelling further into Grendel's mother's lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse and severs his head with the sword. Its blade melts because of the monster's "hot blood", leaving only
22875-757: The hall and kills one of Beowulf's men, Beowulf, who has been feigning sleep, leaps up to clench Grendel's hand. Grendel and Beowulf battle each other violently. Beowulf's retainers draw their swords and rush to his aid, but their blades cannot pierce Grendel's skin. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder. Fatally hurt, Grendel flees to his home in the marshes, where he dies. Beowulf displays "the whole of Grendel's shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp" for all to see at Heorot. This display would fuel Grendel's mother's anger in revenge. The next night, after celebrating Grendel's defeat, Hrothgar and his men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's mother, angry that her son has been killed, sets out to get revenge. "Beowulf
23058-453: The heart of the legends has been transformed through the long process of oral transmission: the causes of complex historical and political events are reduced to basic human motivations such as greed, hubris, jealousy, and personal revenge; events are assimilated to folkloric narrative schemes; conflicts are personalized, typically as conflicts among relatives; and persons living in different time periods are portrayed as contemporaries living in
23241-442: The hero is an "extraordinary individual [...] who stands above his contemporaries in physical and moral strength." The hero is typically a man, sometimes a woman, who is admired for his or her achievements in battle and heroic virtues, capable of performing feats impossible for a normal human, and who often dies tragically. Traditionally, scholars has understood these heroic virtues to include personal glory, honor, and loyalty within
23424-490: The hero" or the "hero on the beach" do exist across Germanic works. Some scholars conclude that Anglo-Saxon poetry is a mix of oral-formulaic and literate patterns. Larry Benson proposed that Germanic literature contains "kernels of tradition" which Beowulf expands upon. Ann Watts argued against the imperfect application of one theory to two different traditions: traditional, Homeric, oral-formulaic poetry and Anglo-Saxon poetry. Thomas Gardner agreed with Watts, arguing that
23607-576: The hilt. Beowulf swims back up to the edge of the lake where his men wait. Carrying the hilt of the sword and Grendel's head, he presents them to Hrothgar upon his return to Heorot. Hrothgar gives Beowulf many gifts, including the sword Nægling , his family's heirloom. The events prompt a long reflection by the king, sometimes referred to as "Hrothgar's sermon", in which he urges Beowulf to be wary of pride and to reward his thegns. Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people. One day, fifty years after Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother,
23790-464: The historical figures upon whom heroic legends were based, such as Theodoric the Great , Gundaharius , and Alboin , were Christians. Klaus von See goes so far as to suggest that Christianization and the creation and spread of the heroic legends "went hand in hand." Hermann Reichert , on the other hand, describes heroic poetry as integrating originally pagan poetry into its Christian worldview, as opposed to what he calls "Old Germanic poetry," which
23973-669: The history of the settlement of Iceland. Heroic legends originate and develop as part of an oral tradition , and often involve historical personages. The heroic legends are traditionally defined according to the geographic location that scholars believe first produced the legend: there is thus continental heroic legend from Germany and the European continent, North Germanic (Scandinavian) heroic legend, and English heroic legend originating in Anglo-Saxon England. The legends are not always attested in their place of origin: thus
24156-478: The instigation of Theuderic I , king of the Franks . The Annals of Quedlinburg (early 11th century), includes legendary material about Dietrich von Bern , Ermanaric , and Attila in the guise of history. Some of the oldest written Scandinavian sources relate to the same heroic matter as found in Beowulf , namely Langfeðgatal (12th c.), the Lejre Chronicle (late 12th c.), Short History of
24339-497: The issue of its composition. Rather, given the implications of the theory of oral-formulaic composition and oral tradition, the question concerns how the poem is to be understood, and what sorts of interpretations are legitimate. In his landmark 1960 work, The Singer of Tales , Albert Lord, citing the work of Francis Peabody Magoun and others, considered it proven that Beowulf was composed orally. Later scholars have not all been convinced; they agree that "themes" like "arming
24522-524: The legend of Wayland the Smith . The legend of Walter of Aquitaine is told in the fragmentary Waldere , which also includes mentions of the fights of the heroes Ðeodric (Dietrich von Bern) and Widia ( Witege ), son of Wayland, against giants. The Finnesburg Fragment tells a story, also relayed in Beowulf of a surprise attack led by the Frisian king Finn on visiting Danes led by his brother-in-law,
24705-519: The legends of Theodoric the Great/Dietrich von Bern appear in some high medieval images. The church portal of San Zeno Maggiore in Verona (c. 1140) appears to depict a legend according to which Dietrich rode to Hell on an infernal horse, a story contained in the Þiðreks saga and alluded to elsewhere. The image of a man freeing another that has been half-devoured by a dragon is also found on
24888-438: The letter to Wanley, Hickes responds to an apparent charge against Smith, made by Wanley, that Smith had failed to mention the Beowulf script when cataloguing Cotton MS. Vitellius A. XV. Hickes replies to Wanley "I can find nothing yet of Beowulph." Kiernan theorised that Smith failed to mention the Beowulf manuscript because of his reliance on previous catalogues or because either he had no idea how to describe it or because it
25071-456: The letters. Rebinding efforts, though saving the manuscript from much degeneration, have nonetheless covered up other letters of the poem, causing further loss. Kiernan, in preparing his electronic edition of the manuscript, used fibre-optic backlighting and ultraviolet lighting to reveal letters in the manuscript lost from binding, erasure, or ink blotting. The Beowulf manuscript was transcribed from an original by two scribes, one of whom wrote
25254-474: The lord's retinue. These traits are then understood to form a heroic ethos that Rolf Bremmer traces to descriptions of Germanic warrior culture in the 1st-century AD Roman historian Tacitus . Other scholars have emphasized other qualities: Klaus von See rejected the notion of exemplarity and argued that the hero is defined by his egotism and excessive ("exorbitant"), often brutal behavior, Wolfgang Haubrichs argued that heroes and their ethos primarily display
25437-562: The majority of writing was on religious subjects, including in the vernacular. The 7th-century Pforzen buckle , discovered in 1992 in an Alemannic warrior's grave in southern Germany, has a short runic inscription that may refer to Egil and Ölrun , two figures from the legend of Wayland the smith . An early source in Latin is the Historia Langobardorum (c. 783–796) of Paul the Deacon : it recounts legends told among
25620-409: The manuscript stood on a shelf unbound, as was the case with other Old English manuscripts. Knowledge of books held in the library at Malmesbury Abbey and available as source works, as well as the identification of certain words particular to the local dialect found in the text, suggest that the transcription may have taken place there. The scholar Roy Liuzza notes that the practice of oral poetry
25803-584: The margins were charred, and some readings were lost. The Nowell Codex is housed in the British Library . The poem was first transcribed in 1786; some verses were first translated into modern English in 1805, and nine complete translations were made in the 19th century, including those by John Mitchell Kemble and William Morris . After 1900, hundreds of translations , whether into prose, rhyming verse, or alliterative verse were made, some relatively faithful, some archaising, some attempting to domesticate
25986-564: The maw of evil. Runkelstein Castle outside Bozen in South Tirol was decorated with frescoes depicting courtly and heroic figures, around 1400. The decorations include depictions of triads of figures, among them the heroes Dietrich, Siegfried, and Dietleib von Steiermark, as well as three giants and three giantesses labeled with names from heroic epics. Wildenstein castle in Swabia
26169-592: The medieval legends themselves in the popular consciousness. Germanic legend was also heavily employed in nationalist propaganda and rhetoric. Finally, it has inspired much of modern fantasy through the works of William Morris and J.R.R. Tolkien , whose The Lord of the Rings incorporates many elements of Germanic heroic legend. Germanic heroic legend is a somewhat amorphous subject, and drawing clear distinctions between it and similar legendary material can be difficult. Victor Millet refers to three criteria to define Germanic heroic legend: 1) it either originates in
26352-423: The monster Grendel for twelve years. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother takes revenge and is in turn defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon , but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a barrow on a headland in his memory. Scholars have debated whether Beowulf
26535-497: The only surviving early medieval heroic epic in the vernacular, Beowulf . Probably the oldest surviving heroic poem is the Old High German Hildebrandslied (c. 800). There also survive numerous pictorial depictions from Viking Age Scandinavia and areas under Norse control in the British Isles. These often attest scenes known from later written versions of legends connected to the hero Sigurd . In
26718-475: The oral tradition and otherwise edit the epics. Heroic poetry begins to be composed in writing in Germany with the Nibelungenlied (c. 1200), which updated the heroic legends with elements of the popular literary genre of its time, courtly romance. The epics written after the Nibelungenlied maintain this hybrid nature. For this reason Middle High German heroic poetry is also called "late heroic poetry" ( späte Heldendichtung ). The Nibelungenlied narrates
26901-704: The poem may have had a long and complex transmission throughout the dialect areas of England. There has long been research into similarities with other traditions and accounts, including the Icelandic Grettis saga , the Norse story of Hrolf Kraki and his bear- shapeshifting servant Bodvar Bjarki , the international folktale the Bear's Son Tale , and the Irish folktale of the Hand and the Child. Persistent attempts have been made to link Beowulf to tales from Homer 's Odyssey or Virgil 's Aeneid . More definite are biblical parallels, with clear allusions to
27084-588: The preserved legendary material seems to have originated with the Goths and Burgundians . The most widely and commonly attested legends are those concerning Dietrich von Bern ( Theodoric the Great ), the adventures and death of the hero Siegfried/Sigurd , and the Huns' destruction of the Burgundian kingdom under king Gundahar . These were "the backbone of Germanic storytelling." The common Germanic poetic tradition
27267-445: The prose at the beginning of the manuscript and the first 1939 lines, before breaking off in mid-sentence. The first scribe made a point of carefully regularizing the spelling of the original document into the common West Saxon, removing any archaic or dialectical features. The second scribe, who wrote the remainder, with a difference in handwriting noticeable after line 1939, seems to have written more vigorously and with less interest. As
27450-567: The relationship between heroic lay and heroic epic in current scholarship. According to the influential model developed by Andreas Heusler (1905), Germanic heroic poetry mostly circulated in heroic lays ( Heldenlieder ): relatively short pieces, of similar length to the Eddic poems, that had fixed wording and were memorized. These poems could then later be expanded into full-sized epics in writing. "Neo-Heuslerians" continue to follow this model with some adjustments, emphasizing in particular that
27633-486: The remaking of the world after Númenor 's attack on Valinor; and Valinor itself. Beowulf This is an accepted version of this page Beowulf ( / ˈ b eɪ ə w ʊ l f / ; Old English : Bēowulf [ˈbeːowuɫf] ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines . It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature . The date of composition
27816-444: The same heroic age. Stages in the combination of the originally independent figures of heroic legend can be seen in texts from the 8th and 9th centuries. Additionally, the legends appear to have become increasingly detached from historical reality, though they still may have been understood as conveying historical knowledge. Conflicts with monsters and otherworldly beings also form an important part of heroic legend. As an example of
27999-443: The scenes, such as putting on armour or crossing the sea, each one improvised at each telling with differing combinations of the stock phrases, while the basic story and style remained the same. Liuzza notes that Beowulf itself describes the technique of a court poet in assembling materials, in lines 867–874 in his translation, "full of grand stories, mindful of songs ... found other words truly bound together; ... to recite with skill
28182-515: The so-called Spielmannsdichtung ("minstrel poetry"). The anonymous authorship of the Middle High Germans heroic poems forms an important distinction from other poetic genres, such as romance, but is shared with Spielmannsdichtung . Although these epics all appear to be written compositions, the amount of differences between manuscripts indicates that their texts were not fixed and that redactors could insert additional material from
28365-702: The submission of Guthrum , leader of a division of the Great Heathen Army of the Danes, and of Aethelred , ealdorman of Mercia. In this thesis, the trend of appropriating Gothic royal ancestry, established in Francia during Charlemagne 's reign, influenced the Anglian kingdoms of Britain to attribute to themselves a Geatish descent. The composition of Beowulf was the fruit of the later adaptation of this trend in Alfred's policy of asserting authority over
28548-485: The tale; he identifies twelve parallels between the tale and Beowulf . Attempts to find classical or Late Latin influence or analogue in Beowulf are almost exclusively linked with Homer 's Odyssey or Virgil 's Aeneid . In 1926, Albert S. Cook suggested a Homeric connection due to equivalent formulas, metonymies , and analogous voyages. In 1930, James A. Work supported the Homeric influence, stating that
28731-457: The text. While the recovery of at least 2000 letters can be attributed to them, their accuracy has been called into question, and the extent to which the manuscript was actually more readable in Thorkelin's time is uncertain. Thorkelin used these transcriptions as the basis for the first complete edition of Beowulf , in Latin. In 1922, Frederick Klaeber , a German philologist who worked at
28914-468: The time period, Beowulf . Beowulf deals with the legends of the Scyldings , the ancestors of the Danish royal house, although it is debated whether Beowulf himself is a traditional or invented figure. The poem Widsið is the first person narrator of a scop who describes his travels. The lay is attested in the 10th century Exeter book ; it has traditionally been dated to the 7th century but this early dating has been questioned. The lay presents
29097-415: The traditions of ruling families, and Walter Haug argued that the brutality of the heroic ethos derived from the introduction of people to history and their confrontation with seemingly senseless violence. In some cases the hero may also display negative values, but he is nevertheless always extraordinary and excessive in his behavior. For Brian O. Murdoch , the way in which he "copes with the blows of fate"
29280-414: The transcription of a tale from the oral tradition by an earlier literate monk, Beowulf reflects an original interpretation of an earlier version of the story by the manuscript's two scribes. On the other hand, some scholars argue that linguistic, palaeographical (handwriting), metrical (poetic structure), and onomastic (naming) considerations align to support a date of composition in the first half of
29463-409: The use of similar techniques in oral traditions such as Somali oral poetry. It is possible that the sort of literal memorization required of Norse skaldic poetry resulted in the loss of oral formulaic improvised poetry in an Old Norse context; Haymes and Samples suggest that this same fixed quality may have driven the change from heroic poetry to prose sagas in Iceland and Scandinavia. Originally,
29646-408: The variability of the tradition, Edward Haymes and Susan Samples note that Sigurd/Siegfried is variously said to be killed in the woods or in his bed, but always with the fixed detail that it was by a spear in the back. A minority position, championed by Walter Goffart and Roberta Frank , has argued that there is no oral tradition and that heroic legend was in fact developed by learned clerics in
29829-476: The way that it is currently bound, the Beowulf manuscript is followed by the Old English poem Judith . Judith was written by the same scribe that completed Beowulf , as evidenced by similar writing style. Wormholes found in the last leaves of the Beowulf manuscript that are absent in the Judith manuscript suggest that at one point Beowulf ended the volume. The rubbed appearance of some leaves suggests that
30012-515: The woods. However, one of his men, Wiglaf, in great distress at Beowulf's plight, comes to his aid. The two slay the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded. After Beowulf dies, Wiglaf remains by his side, grief-stricken. When the rest of the men finally return, Wiglaf bitterly admonishes them, blaming their cowardice for Beowulf's death. Beowulf is ritually burned on a great pyre in Geatland while his people wail and mourn him, fearing that without him,
30195-406: The wooing of Kriemhild ( Gudrun ) by the hero Siegfried, his aid to king Gunther in the latter's wooing of Brünhild ( Brunhild ), Siegfried's murder at the hands of Gunther's vassal Hagen , and Kriemhild's treacherous revenge on Hagen and her brothers after inviting them to the hall of Kriemhild's new husband, Etzel (Attila). A direct reaction to the heroic nihilism of the Nibelungenlied is found in
30378-404: The work. Among the best-known modern translations are those of Edwin Morgan , Burton Raffel , Michael J. Alexander , Roy Liuzza , and Seamus Heaney . The difficulty of translating Beowulf has been explored by scholars including J. R. R. Tolkien (in his essay " On Translating Beowulf " ), who worked on a verse and a prose translation of his own. The events in the poem take place over
30561-458: The written attestations appear to be written compositions. Eddic poems, including the supposedly oldest, the Atlakviða , show important differences from typical oral formulaic style and the style of Old English, Old Saxon, and Old High German heroic poetry. Haymes, an adherent of the oral epic, suggests that this means that the Eddic poems were not improvised, but instead memorized verbatim according to Heusler's model, something also suggested by
30744-513: The written medium. More recent written compositions can thus contain very old material or legendary variants; conversely, older texts do not necessarily convey an older or more authentic version of the tradition. Written versions of heroic legend are not confined to a single genre, but appear in various formats, including the heroic lay , in the form of epic , as prose sagas , as well as theatrical plays and ballads . Its written attestations also come from various places and time periods, including
30927-425: Was alliterative verse , although this is replaced with poetry in rhyming stanzas in high medieval Germany. In early medieval England and Germany, poems were recited by a figure called the scop , whereas in Scandinavia it is less clear who sang heroic songs. In high medieval Germany, heroic poems seem to have been sung by a class of minstrels. The heroic tradition died out in England after the Norman conquest , but
31110-477: Was transmitted orally , affecting its interpretation: if it was composed early, in pagan times, then the paganism is central and the Christian elements were added later, whereas if it was composed later, in writing, by a Christian, then the pagan elements could be decorative archaising; some scholars also hold an intermediate position. Beowulf is written mostly in the Late West Saxon dialect of Old English, but many other dialectal forms are present, suggesting that
31293-423: Was a child and launched him alone out over the waves. In line 33 of Beowulf , Scyld's ship is called īsig , literally, ‘icy.’ The meaning of this epithet has been discussed many times. Anatoly Liberman gives a full survey of the literature and suggests that the word meant "shining." William of Malmesbury 's 12th century Chronicle tells the story of Sceafa as a sleeping child in a boat without oars with
31476-403: Was a parallel with the Grettis Saga , but in 1998, Magnús Fjalldal challenged that, stating that tangential similarities were being overemphasised as analogies. The story of Hrolf Kraki and his servant, the legendary bear- shapeshifter Bodvar Bjarki , has also been suggested as a possible parallel; he survives in Hrólfs saga kraka and Saxo 's Gesta Danorum , while Hrolf Kraki, one of
31659-428: Was buried in a large barrow, c. 575 , on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. The eastern mound was excavated in 1854, and contained the remains of a woman, or a woman and a young man. The middle barrow has not been excavated. In Denmark, recent (1986–88, 2004–05) archaeological excavations at Lejre , where Scandinavian tradition located the seat of the Scyldings, Heorot , have revealed that
31842-405: Was decorated with images from the epic Sigenot in the 16th century. Emperor Maximilian I 's decision to have Theodoric the Great, together with Charlemagne and King Arthur , be one of the four bronze sculptures on his tomb in Innsbruck was probably influenced by Maximilian's documented interest in the heroic poems. German manuscripts of heroic epics were generally not illuminated until
32025-478: Was elsewhere. Earlier, after the award of treasure, The Geat had been given another lodging"; his assistance would be absent in this attack. Grendel's mother violently kills Æschere , who is Hrothgar's most loyal advisor, and escapes, later putting his head outside her lair. Hrothgar, Beowulf, and their men track Grendel's mother to her lair under a lake. Unferth , a warrior who had earlier challenged him, presents Beowulf with his sword Hrunting . After stipulating
32208-454: Was maintained in Germany until the 1600s, and lived on in a different form in Scandinavia until the 20th century as a variety of the medieval ballads . Romanticism resurrected interest in the tradition in the late 18th and early 19th century, with numerous translations and adaptations of heroic texts. The most famous adaptation of Germanic legend is Richard Wagner 's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , which has in many ways overshadowed
32391-518: Was pagan and has not survived. Many of the surviving pictorial representations of heroic legend are in an unambiguously Christian context, and many ecclesiastics belonged to the same aristocratic class among whom heroic poetry was popular. Complaints that ecclesiastical figures preferred hearing heroic tales to the Bible, the church fathers, or saints’ lives are frequent. The creation of several heroic epics also seems to have been prompted by ecclesiastics, such as Waltharius , possibly Beowulf , and
32574-506: Was probably composed during the first half of the eighth century, and that the writer was a native of what was then called West Mercia, located in the Western Midlands of England. However, the late tenth-century manuscript "which alone preserves the poem" originated in the kingdom of the West Saxons – as it is more commonly known. Beowulf survived to modern times in a single manuscript, written in ink on parchment , later damaged by fire. The manuscript measures 245 × 185 mm. The poem
32757-445: Was produced c. 1470 for Margaret of Savoy , containing 20 miniatures of very high quality. Printed editions of the poems frequently contained woodcuts . Detailed attestations of heroic traditions are only found in writing. These written attestations cannot be assumed to be identical to the oral tradition, but represent adaptations of it, undertaken by a particular author at a particular time and place. All of them, but particularly
32940-503: Was published in 2018. It relocates the action to a wealthy community in 20th-century America and is told primarily from the point of view of Grendel's mother. In 2020, Headley published a translation in which the opening "Hwæt!" is rendered "Bro!"; this translation subsequently won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work . Neither identified sources nor analogues for Beowulf can be definitively proven, but many conjectures have been made. These are important in helping historians understand
33123-428: Was seen as a step in the right direction, "The Bear's Son" tale has later been regarded by many as not a close enough parallel to be a viable choice. Later, Peter A. Jorgensen, looking for a more concise frame of reference, coined a "two-troll tradition" that covers both Beowulf and Grettis saga : "a Norse ' ecotype ' in which a hero enters a cave and kills two giants, usually of different sexes"; this has emerged as
33306-405: Was temporarily out of the codex. The manuscript passed to Crown ownership in 1702, on the death of its then owner, Sir John Cotton, who had inherited it from his grandfather, Robert Cotton. It suffered damage in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, in which around a quarter of the manuscripts bequeathed by Cotton were destroyed. Since then, parts of the manuscript have crumbled along with many of
33489-426: Was translated from a lost original Scandinavian work; surviving Scandinavian works have continued to be studied as possible sources. In 1886 Gregor Sarrazin suggested that an Old Norse original version of Beowulf must have existed, but in 1914 Carl Wilhelm von Sydow claimed that Beowulf is fundamentally Christian and was written at a time when any Norse tale would have most likely been pagan . Another proposal
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